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Check out completed Shell Cordovan Mens Shoes, they can sell for a lot!
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Trash to Cash. A podcast about making a living on eBay.
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Check out completed Shell Cordovan Mens Shoes, they can sell for a lot!
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This week we devoted the show to all the good advice people contributed in the comments this past week.
We appreciate the constructive conversations and debates. I know our business improves when other people share what works or doesn’t work for them.
And folks are slowing starting to book our Farmhouse for the spring and summer. We’d love to have you spend some time in the Shenandoah Valley. You can see (and hike) the mountains in our backyard that we see each day as we list on eBay.
Our Store Week January 10-16, 2016
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Bonanza: $0
Amazon: $0
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We all know that the bottleneck to running an eBay business is photographing and listing items. Treasure hunting, picking, thrifting, dumpster diving, scavenging: this is the fun, easy part. The often tedious work of listing each item on eBay is the part that throws most people off. There’s a long, dusty trail of burnt out sellers who have given up the ghost because listing got too much.
About a year ago, we did an interview with Susie who explained how she used a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines to help her list. Sue had a very particular process that worked for her. Also, she was able to travel to the Philippines to help her train her assistants. Since they were “virtual”, they could only do so much of the work.
We also interviewed Will aka Terminal99 about how he has hired two full-time employees who help him photograph and list. He pays a full salary and benefits.
Today, we talk w/ Lisa & Dan from NewVintageNY. Both have full-time jobs, but have managed to build an eBay store with over 6000 items. They’ve created an eBay pipeline where they find the items, but then locally hire out the work of photographing and listing. By placing ads on Craigslist, they are finding trusted people willing to be paid per listing. It’s a cool conversation because they’re still figuring it out.
You’ll hear us walk through their process, what they’ve learned, and how they plan to expand. After we recorded this conversation, Dan has hired a new person to help list. Hopefully he’ll update us all in the comments.
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Check out completeds for down throw pillows, a great thing to keep an eye out for!
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We had a good, solid week of sales. A completely unglamorous week, but these are the weeks that make us a living.
We get regular emails from sellers who ask us about items they find. The person tells us how special the item is and how they can’t find it anywhere online. It’s so special that they can’t figure how much to price it. They don’t want to list it because they might undervalue it and miss out on unknown riches. Paralysis sets in.
Here’s what we always tell these sellers. Being too precious about anything is one of the worst mistakes we can make. First, do the research. Rarely is there ever not something online to tell you how valuable an item is. And if there is absolutely nothing online, it could mean that it’s not that valuable. Sought after items are spoken about at length on the internet.
Second, you can always take it to someone who might know more. But when we do this, we think of it as an adventure. A fun way to do research. Questions are usually always free to ask. Paying for appraisals doesn’t make sense to us.
Third, sometimes rare items just aren’t worth much. It may be rare or even one-of-a-kind, but that doesn’t automatically mean it’s valuable. Someone has to want it.
Ultimately, we can’t be paralyzed by indecision. We just have to list it. If we’re unsure, we put a high price with “make offer” see what kind of offers people send in. For every item we may have undervalued, we’ve sold 100 items for double what normal sellers might have made on the same items. The key is never be too precious about anything after doing the research.
In this episode, we mentioned the following links:
Hope you had a good week.
Our Store Week January 3-9, 2016
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Bonanza: $90
Amazon: $0
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It’s been 18 months since we last spoke with Martin over at GarbageFinds. You can listen to our first conversation here.
Martin lives in Montreal and scavenges for every single item he sells in the people’s trash. He goes from neighborhood to neighborhood on trash days and neatly goes through the trash bags on the street. Each week he documents on his blog all the cool items he finds. It’s incredible.
I actually get a little anxious imagining all the stuff that he finds each week…knowing there must be exponentially more amazing items left in the garbage. Martin is just one man in a giant city. Imagine what people are throwing away and just going into the landfill. Jewelry, precious metal, artwork, photos, rare items. People just too lazy to take it down to the donation center. Imagine this happening in every city in North America each day. Jeez…let me catch my breath. We need more trash elves saving these items.
Martin just posted his financial review of 2015 over on his blog. Scavenging in the trash is his full time job. You can see how much money he made from each neighborhood he visits. Fun! He said he would answer any question you have in the comments below.
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Check out completed Vintage Lilly Pulitzer items. A legendary designer to keep an eye out for!
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We had a much better week. Pretty consistent sales. We also sold a lot of weird items we’ve had for a while. Those are the best sales.
We talk about our concept of “slow business” which is just a twist on the whole Slow Movement.
“It is a cultural revolution against the notion that faster is always better. The Slow philosophy is not about doing everything at a snail’s pace. It’s about seeking to do everything at the right speed. Savoring the hours and minutes rather than just counting them. Doing everything as well as possible, instead of as fast as possible. It’s about quality over quantity in everything from work to food to parenting.”
As we continue to sell on eBay and invest in rental property, we’re trying to make sure every step of the way feels sustainable. There’s no hurry at all. Death is coming no matter what we do.
Also, in the past, we were always looking for a sense of purpose and family in our work environments which was rare to find. Of course as we grew older, we realized that the purpose of corporations, companies, and businesses isn’t to make us feel secure or give us individual purpose. This is why we’re creating it for ourselves the best we can. We keep building our lives one slow pair of old shoes at a time.
In this episode, we mentioned the following links:
Happy New Year everyone. Put your head down and list.
Our Store Week December 27-January 2, 2016
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Bonanza: $385
Amazon: $50 Book
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Some of our favorite things to find are vintage ski patches. You can see why, they can sell for at least $25 each.
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We had a very modest Christmas week of sales. Started off slow and ended busy. So it all averaged out.
We stayed home for the holidays. No family or big celebration. Instead we cooked holiday hamburgers. Our favorite! But we also were pretty unmotivated this week. It happens.
In this podcast, we mentioned the following links:
Hope you’re having a great holiday.
Our Store Week December 20-26, 2015
Bonanza: $60
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